Because Spanish is your native language, you naturally have difficulty pronouncing some American English sounds.

The following is a description of the sounds most typically accented by Spanish speakers, how you may be saying them, and examples of how these accented sounds sound to Americans in words. Please review this section before you begin practicing any of the sounds included in this self-study book.

Section 1: Sounds which may make the biggest difference in your accent: Mastering the following sounds may have the biggest impact on your spoken English skills.

1. The “b” sounds like “v” and “v” sounds like “b” You may notice that you pronounce “b” like “v” and “v” like “b.” These are important sounds to practice and master, as they will make a positive difference your spoken English.

The “v” sound is a member of what we call the “continuant” sounds and can be prolonged. The “b” sound, on the other hand, is a member of what we call the “stop sounds” which means that you must stop your voice after you say it. If you can associate these features with these sounds, it will help you to remember how to pronounce them correctly. To form the “b” sound:

Place your lips together

Hold your breath

Push out your voice in a little explosion. Once you say the sound, you must stop your voice.

If the “b” is pronounced like “v”The word “bet” will sound like “vet”The word “about” will sound like “uh-vowt”The word “boat” will sound like “vote”To form the “v” sound

Keep your lips flat in a smile and relax your upper lip. You should be able to see your upper front teeth

Lightly place your upper front teeth on your lower lip. They don’t have to cover your lips, just be touching them

Push your voice out through the front of your mouth between the small space between your lower lip and upper front teeth. You should feel your lower lip vibrate when you say this sound.

If the “v” sounds like “b”:The word “very” will sound like “berry”The word “every” will sound like “ebb-ree”The word “have” will sound like “hab”

2. The “sh” sound is pronounced like “ch” and the “ch” sound is pronounced like “sh”If you are having difficulty pronouncing the “sh” and “ch” sounds, it is most likely because you are interchanging them. What this means is that you are pronouncing “sh” like “ch” and “ch” like “sh.”

Let’s first start with the differences between the “sh” and “ch” sounds.

The “sh” sound is a consonant sound and is a member of the “continuant sounds” which means that you can prolong it.

The “ch” sound is a member of the “affricate sounds” and is actually made up of two different sounds: “t” and “sh.” Basically, what this means is that for “ch” you will start by holding your breath for the “t” sound, but you will not have this feature for “sh.”

To form the “sh” sound

Make a circle with your lips.

Keep your teeth slightly apart

Tense your tongue and raise it high in your mouth while pressing the sides against your upper side teeth just as you would for the “ee” sound

Raise the tip of your tongue so that it is very close to the roof of your mouth at the point where you feel the roof of your mouth arch up

Push air out of your mouth and continue it.

This is what we call the “quiet sound”

If “sh” is pronounced like “ch”:The word “ship” will sound like “chip”The word “shop” will sound like “chop”The word “mash” will sound like “match”

To form the “ch” sound

Make a circle with your lips

Open your mouth slightly

Tense your tongue and raise it high in your mouth, pressing the sides of your tongue against your upper side teeth

Raise the tip of your tongue so that it touches the roof of your mouth just where the roof starts to arch up

Hold your breath

Push air out in a little explosion

If the “ch” is pronounced like “sh”:The word “chew” will sound like “shoe.”The word “watch” will sound like “wash”The word “batch” will sound like “bash”

3. The “p” sound is often pronounced like “b”The “p” and “b” sounds are members of what we call the “stop sounds” and are formed in exactly the same way, except for voicing: the “p” does not use your voice, while the “b” does. If you are having difficulty forming the “p” sound, you are most likely using your voice when you shouldn’t. To form the “p” sound

Place your lips together and hold your breath.

Push air out of your mouth in a little explosion. You must hear a little puff of air when you say the “p” sound. If you don’t, then you are saying the “b” sound.

When “p” sounds like “b”:The word “pat” will sound like “bat.”The word “pen” will sound like “ben.”The word “please” will sound like “blease”

4. The “z” sound is pronounced like “s”Most native Spanish speakers find the “z” sound very difficult to pronounce in English. If this sound is difficult for you, it is because you are not using your voice when you need to. This is the only change you need to make in order to say the “z” sound.

The “s” and “z” sounds in English are formed in exactly the same way, except for what we call “voicing”: the “s” does not use your voice, while the “z” does. The tricky part is that most of the time, the “z” sound in English is represented with the letter “s.” Devote a lot of time to this sound, as it will affect your spoken English significantly.

As you say this sound, you will push air out through the tiny space between your tongue and the roof of your mouth.

You must use your voice when you say this, so that it sounds like a buzzing sound. You should feel your tongue vibrate.

When “z” sounds like “s”:The word “zoo” sounds like “Sue.”The word “busy” may sound like “bissy.”The word “was” may sound like “wuss.”

5.The “ih” sound is often pronounced like “ee”The “ih” and “ee” sounds belong to what we call the “front vowels” because they use the front part of the tongue to form them. If you are having difficulty pronouncing the “ih” sound, you are most likely tensing your tongue and raising it high in your mouth, rather than relaxing it and keeping it half way up inside your mouth.

To form the “ih” sound:

Open your mouth so that your teeth are about an inch apart and your lips are flat in a slight smile

Your tongue should be relaxed

Place your tongue about half way up inside your mouth

The tip of your tongue should be just behind your lower front teeth. You can actually place the tip of your tongue on the back of your bottom teeth.

As you say the “ih” sound, you will feel the front and middle of your tongue raise up slightly and then go back down.

6. The “t” and “d” are pronounced with the tongue too far forwardIn Spanish, the “t” and “d” sounds are usually pronounced with the front part of the tongue flat on the roof of the mouth and touching the back of the top front teeth. This creates “heavier” sounds and will make the “t” and “d” sounds distorted. In American English, these sounds are formed only by using the tip of the tongue behind, but not touching, the upper front teeth.

The “t” and “d” both belong to the group of consonant sounds called the “stop sounds.” They are formed in exactly the same way, with the exception of voicing; the “d” uses your voice, while the “t” doesn’t.

To form the “d” sound:

Open your mouth slightly

Place the tip of your tongue behind your upper front teeth, but not touching them.

Hold your breath

Push out the sound in a little explosion

When the “d” is distorted:The word “do” will sound more like “do” (with distortion)The word “does” will sound more like “does” (with distortion)The word “day” will sound like “day” (with distortion) or like “thay”

The “d” at the end of words may be pronounced like “t”. This occurs because you don’t use your voice when you should.

Place the tip of your tongue just behind your upper front teeth, but not touching them

Hold your breath

Push air out in a little explosion. You should actually be able to hear a little puff of air when you say this sound. Because you tend to keep your tongue flat, rather than pointing your tongue tip, the “t” sound may often sound like “d”.

Like the “d” sound, the “t” also occurs very frequently in English, and therefore is a very important sound to learn and master.

When the “t” sounds like “d”:The word “to” will sound like “do”The word “tell” will sound like “dell”The word “time” will sound like “dime”

7. The final consonant of words may be omittedWhile final consonants in American English are pronounced quietly, they must be pronounced. If you are omitting the final sounds of words, it may be difficult for Americans to understand your speech.

You may be omitting “t” and “d” at the ends of words.Because “t” and “d” occur very frequently, these are important sounds for both pronunciation and grammar.

If you omit the final “t” or “d”, it can affect tense, change a word completely or create a nonsense word:The word “changed” may sound like “change”The word “right” may sound like “rye”The word “mat” may sound like “mae”

The “v” may be omitted at the ends of words If you omit the final “v”:The word “five” will sound like “fye”The word “give” will sound like “gih”

The “n” may be omitted at the ends of wordsIf you omit the final “n”:The word “nine” will sound like “nye”The word “mine” will sound like “my”

The “f” may be omitted at the ends of wordsIf you omit the final “f”:The word “stuff” will sound like “stuh”The word “cuff” will sound like “kuh”

8. The “r” sound is usually rolledThis is probably the most frequently used sound in American English. It occurs as a consonant, a vowel, and is present in lots of consonant blends, so it may very well be the sound that affects your accent the most.

When the “r” is rolled, it is pronounced with the tip of the tongue lightly touching the roof of the mouth just behind the upper front teeth. In addition, the lips are flat and relaxed. If the tongue tip hits the roof of the mouth once, it is called “rolling”. If the tongue tip hits the roof of the mouth several times, it is called “trilling.” This is quite different from how it is pronounced in American English. To form the American English “r” consonant sound:

Round your lips

Feel your lower jaw move slightly forward. This will happen automatically when you make a circle with your lips.

Curl the tip of your tongue up toward the roof of your mouth, but do not let it touch anything.

Because the rolled “r” is so different from the “r” in American English, it can be distracting for most Americans. This means that they will need more time to translate the rolled “r” into an American “r”, which might slow down their ability to understand your speech. Because the “r” occurs so frequently in English, it is a very important sound to learn and master.

As a consonant, the “r” can occur at the beginning of a word, such as in the word “red” and in the middle of the word, as in “around.”

When the “r” occurs as a vowel, it is formed in the same way as the consonant “r”, except the tongue is slightly more relaxed. Right now you are most likely rolling the “r” when it occurs as a vowel, just as you roll it when it occurs as a consonant.

The vowel “r” can occur as a stressed syllable, such as in the word “bird”, or as an unstressed syllable, such as in the word “mother.”

9. The voiced “th” sound is usually pronounced like “d”The “th” sound may be very challenging for you to pronounce. Right now, what you might be doing is pronouncing it like the “d” sound. Basically, this means that you are keeping your tongue inside your mouth, rather than sticking it out, and you are holding your breath and stopping your voice, rather than keeping the sound going.

To form the voiced “th” sound:

Stick your tongue out of your mouth slightly

Let your upper front teeth rest lightly on your tongue

Push your voice out through the tiny space between your upper front teeth and tongue

Keep your tongue and teeth lightly touching while you are pushing out the sound. If you hold your breath or separate your tongue and teeth, you will not be pronouncing the “th” correctly

You should feel your tongue vibrate when you say this sound

If you pronounce the voiced “th” like “d”:The word “the” will sound like “duh.”The word “another” will sound like “uh-nuh-der”The word “breathe” will sound like “breed”

10. The unvoiced “th” sound is usually pronounced like “t”The unvoiced “th” and the voiced “th” sounds are formed in exactly the same way, with the exception of voicing. The voiced “th” uses your voice, while the unvoiced “th” does not. If you are having difficulty forming the unvoiced “th”, you are most likely pronouncing it like “t.” This means that you are keeping your tongue inside your mouth, rather than sticking it out. In addition, you are holding your breath to begin this sound instead of pushing air out and continuing it.

To form the unvoiced “th” sound

Stick out your tongue slightly

Let your upper front teeth rest very lightly on your tongue

Keep your tongue and teeth together while you push air out through the front of your mouth.

Make sure you continue or prolong this sound. You will not feel your tongue vibrate for this sound because you do not use your voice.

When the unvoiced “th” sounds like “t”:The word “think” will sound like “tink.”The word “something” will sound like “some-ting.”The word “north” will sound like “nort”

11. The “dg” sound is pronounced like “zh” or “yuh”, and the “yuh” sound is often pronounced like “dg”Many native Spanish speakers have difficulty distinguishing between and pronouncing the “dg” and “yuh” sounds.

The “dg” is a consonant sound that belongs to what we call the “affricate sounds.” It is actually made up of two sounds: “d” and “zh”. If you are pronouncing “dg” like “zh”, it means that you are only pronouncing the second half of the sound. If you are pronouncing it like “yuh” , you are placing your tongue in position for “ee” and then pulling your tongue down.

To form the “dg” sound:

Place the tip of your tongue on the roof of your mouth, just as you would for “d”

Round your lips: this is very important! Do not keep your lips flat

Tense your tongue and make sure you can feel the sides of your tongue pressing against your upper side teeth. The middle of your tongue should form a groove.Push out your voice in a little explosion

When “dg” sounds like “zh”:The word “jump” will sound like “zhump”The word “project” will sound like “praw-zheckt”The word “badge” will sound like “bae-zh”

When “dg” sounds like “yuh”:The word “jump” will sound like “yump”The word “project” will sound like “praw-yeckt”

To form the “yuh” sound

Place your lips in a smile and keep your teeth fairly close together

Raise your tongue high in your mouth so that you feel the sides of your tongue pressing against your upper side teeth, just as you would say “ee”

As you say “ee”, pull your tongue down to a neutral position, creating “yuh”.

When “yuh” sounds like “dg”:The word “you” will sound like “jew”The word “yes” will sound like “Jess”The word “yesterday” will sound like “jesterday”

12.The stressed “uh” is often pronounced like “aw”You may find that you are having a difficult time pronouncing the stressed “uh” such as in the word “under.” correctly in English. Right now you are most likely pronouncing it like “aw” much of the time. To make matters worse, the “aw” sound is sometimes made with the letter “o”, as in the word “other”, as well as the letter “u” as in the word “under.”

There are two main differences between the “aw” and “uh” sounds:1. The lips are relaxed and neutral for “uh” and are rounded for “aw”2. The “uh” uses the middle part of your tongue, where the “aw” uses the back.

To form the stressed “uh” sound:

Open your mouth slightly and let your jaw drop.

Keep your mouth relaxed.

Your tongue should be about half way up inside your mouth and should not touch anything. There is not much movement required to make this sound.

When “uh” sounds like “aw”:The word “under” will sound like “on-der”The word “other” will sound like “awn-der”The word “color” will sound like “collar”

13.The “ay” sound is often pronounced like “eh” and the “eh” sound is often pronouncing like “ay”The “ay” and “eh” sounds both belong to the “front vowels”, which means that they both use the front part of the tongue to form them.

If you can remember the following features of the “ay” and “eh” sounds, you will be able to distinguish between them and pronounce them more easily:1. Your mouth is open wide for “ay” and only slightly for “eh”2. When you say “ay”, the sound ends high in your mouth with “ee”, but it stays about half way up inside your mouth and relaxed for “eh” 3. Your tongue tip is pushed slightly more forward in your mouth than for the “eh” sound.

To form the “ay” sound:

Open your mouth wide

Place the tip of your tongue just behind your bottom front teeth.

Press the sides of your tongue against your upper front teeth

As you say the “ay” sound, close your mouth slightly and end with “ee”

When “ay” sounds like “eh”:The word “nature” will sound like “neh-cher”The word “name” will sound like “nehm”The word “raid” will sound like “red”

To form the “eh” sound

Open your mouth so that your teeth are about one inch apart.

Make a slight smile and relax your lips and tongue

Raise your tongue about half way up inside your mouth.

Your tongue tip should rest just behind your lower front teeth.

When the “eh” is pronounced like “ay”:The word “med” will sound like “made”The word “pen” will sound like “pain”The word “measure” will sound like “may-zher”

14. The “oh” is sometimes pronounced like “aw” and the “aw”sound sometimes sounds like “oh”Many speakers have difficulty pronouncing the “aw” and “oh” sounds correctly in English. These sounds both belong to the same group of vowels called the “back vowels” because they use the back part of the tongue to form them, but they do have distinct differences.

The following are the main differences between “aw” and “oh”:

Your tongue and lips are relaxed for “aw” and tense for “oh”

Your lips should form an open circle, almost like an oval for “aw”, where it ends with a tight circle for “oh”

The back of the tongue should be slightly raised for “aw” and raised high in the back of the mouth for “oh”

To form the “oh” sound:

Place your lips in an open circle

Tense your tongue and raise the back of it high in the back of your mouth

The front part of your tongue should be low in the front of your mouth

Move your lips into a tight circle as you say the “oh” sound

Finish the “oh” almost like an “oo” sound

When “oh” sounds like “aw”:The word “open” will sound like “aw-pen”The word “notice” will sound like “naw-tiss”The word “won’t” will sound like “want”To form the “aw” sound:

Place your lips in an open circle, so that it resembles an oval. This means that your mouth will be in more of an oval shape.

Raise the back of your tongue up slightly in your mouth, and keep the tip of your tongue down below your lower front teeth

When “aw” sounds like “oh”:The word “often” will sound like “oh-fen”The word “cost” will sound like “coast”The word “bought” will sound like “boat”

15.The “u” sound as in the word “put” may sound like “oo” and the “oo” like “u”The “u” and “oo” sounds are both members of the “back vowels” because they use the back part of the tongue to form them. There are some major differences, however:1. Your tongue and lips are relaxed for “u” and are tense for “oo”2. Your lips should be in a slight circle for “u” and a tight circle for “oo”To form the “u” sound:

Form a slight circle while your mouth stays relaxed

The back of your tongue should raise up slightly and should also stay relaxed.

When “u” sounds like “oo”:The word “should” will sound like “shoed”The word “bush” will sound like “boosh”The word “took” will sound like “two-k”To form the “oo” sound:

Make a tight circle with your lips

Tense and raise the back part of your tongue up high in the back of your mouth

As you say “oo” keep your tongue and lips in place

When “oo” sounds like “u”:The word “pool” will sound like “pull”The word “tool” will sound like “tuul”The word “spoon” will sound like “spuun”

Section 2: Other sounds to practice: The following sounds may be mispronounced, but will not have as significant an impact on your ability to be understood. These sounds include the following:

16. The final “ng” sound is often pronounced like “n”If you are pronouncing the final “ng” like “n”, it is most likely occurring on verbs that end with “ing”, where “driving”, for example, sounds like “drivin.” If you are making this error, you are placing the tip of your tongue just behind your upper front teeth for “n”, rather than pushing the back of your tongue against the back of your throat to say “ng.”

To form the “ng” sound:

Open your mouth and place the back of your tongue against the back of your throat.

As you say the sound, gently release your tongue without holding your breath.

When “ng” sounds like “n”:The word “thinking” will sound like “thinkin”The word “going” will sound like “goin”The word “talking” will sound like “talkin”

17. The final “m” may be pronounced like “n”Pronouncing the “m” at the end of a word like “n” is a very common mistake that native Spanish speakers make when speaking English. It is easy to fix, but you must take the time to put your lips together for the “m” sound when it occurs at the end of a word.

When “m” sounds like “n”:The word “some” will sound like “son”The word “time” will sound like “tine”The word “am” will sound like “an”

18. The short a (“ae”) sound often sounds like “ah”Most people who speak English as a second language learn British English first, and this may be part of the reason why you are pronouncing “ae” like “ah.” While this is different from the American English pronunciation, it should not make a negative impact on your spoken English.

The “ae” and “ah” sounds are actually very different in American English The “ae” sound uses the front part of the tongue, as in the word “ask”, while the “ah” sound uses the back part of the tongue, as in the word “father.”

To form the “ae” sound:

Open your mouth wide

Place the tip of your tongue in the front of or just behind your bottom front teeth.

Your tongue should be flat about half way up inside your mouth.

With your tongue in place, pronounce the “ae” sound. If you lower the back of your tongue, you will form the “ah” sound.

When “ae” sounds like “ah”:The word “ask” will sound like “ahsk”The word “can’t will sound like “cahn’t”The word “last” will sound like “lahst”

19. The “zh” sound may be pronounced like “sh”The “zh” sound occurs in the middle and at the ends of words in English and does not occur that frequently in everyday words. As a result, mispronunciations with this sound will most likely not have a significant impact on your spoken English.

If you are having difficulty pronouncing the “zh” sound, it is most likely because you are not using your voice when you should. The “zh” and “sh” sounds are formed in exactly the same way, with the exception of voicing; the “zh” uses your voice, while the “sh” doesn’t.

To form the “sh” sound:

Make a circle with your lips.

Keep your teeth slightly apart

Tense your tongue and raise it high in your mouth while pressing the sides against your upper side teeth just as you would for the “ee” sound

Raise the tip of your tongue so that it is very close to the roof of your mouth at the point where you feel the roof of your mouth arch up

Push your voice out and continue it.

When “zh” sounds like “sh”:The word “measure” will sound like “mesh-er”The word “vision” will sound like “vih-shin”The word “usually” will sound like “you-shuh-lee”